Balmoral International Group Luxembourg

In the past blogs, we have seen hotels and residential districts in Luxembourg. For this article, Balmoral International Group Ltd. is introducing one of the most-wildly known monuments in town.

Gëlle Fra is a Luxembourgish term for Golden Lady. The monument, located in Constitution Square in Ville Haute Quarter in Central Luxembourg has been one of the bus stops of tourists and local alike when they happen to pass by the place. It is dedicated to the thousands of Luxembourgers who volunteered in the armed forces of the Allied Powers in World War I.

A 21-metre obelisk is the center of the monument. Atop of this grand structure stands a glided bronze statue of a Nike, the goddess of victory or Queen of Freedom. The lady is holding a laurel wreath as if crowing the city of Luxembourg for all that it has been through before, during and after the great wars. The sculptor, Claus Cito, a native Luxembourger also added two more bronze figures at the foot of the obelisk representing the Luxembourgish soldiers that volunteered to serve France: one is seen lying at the base of the statue, having died in the war in the midst of serving the country and the other one is shown sitting mourning for his friend. The monument was opened in public in 1923

Despite the deep representation of the monument for Luxembourg, it aroused public controversy at the time it was proposed and installed. Opposition had come from the conservative Catholic majority of citizens, and at the inauguration ceremony Grand Duchess Charlotte and the Bishop of Luxembourg were absent.

During the World War II, when Luxembourg was occupied by the Nazi forces, the Germans dismantled several portions of the monument. After the war, it was only partially restored. The lady herself remained to be unaccounted for until it was found hidden beneath the main stand of the national football stadium on January 1980. Later, the additions were made to honor Luxembourg forces who served during World War II and Korean War.

The lady also sometimes goes to expositions. She was removed from the obelisk and went to a world expo in Shanghai in 2010.

For more sites and memorial tourist spots in Luxembourg, you can visit Balmoral International Group Luxembourg blogs.

In the extreme south of Luxembourg is a little region worth featuring in Balmoral International Group called the Land of Red Rocks. It got its name from the steel industry which produces red ore back in the industrial area. The south of the country once provided the nation’s wealth. But now the open-cast mines and iron-ore workings have given way to Mother Nature. Where there once stood blast furnaces rare orchids flourish. Former steel factories now house museums, galleries and theatres. Past industrial prosperity has been replaced by cultural wealth. Its hillsides and forests reveal Roman and earlier remains. Today, the former mining area of the Land of the Red Rocks, also referred to as Terres Rouges, was able to find a new identity combining ancient and new technologies.

Steel plants and Fond-de-Gras

As mentioned above, the industrial culture in this region is called the Terres Rouges. As technology is developing so is the steelworks as the former processes were reassigned to serve modern society. Today it is the industry and railway park Fond-de-Gras, which recalls this fundamental time in the history of Luxembourg.

University campus and commercial centres

The Land of the Red Rocks encompasses the major commercial cities of Luxembourg, including Dudelange, Esch-sur-Alzette and Differdange. Resolutely modern and trendy, these cities form an urban complex with a young and dynamic atmosphere. Street theatre, rock festivals and concert halls complement cultural offerings. It is also in the Terres Rouges region, in Esch-Belval precisely, that will be created the future campus of the University of Luxembourg. The famous concert hall “Rockhal” in the city of Esch shows how the Land of the Red Rocks managed to give a complex historical past a new image for a modern and changing Luxembourg.

Red earth – a paradise for children

In addition to the many attractions of the former mining area, the Terres Rouges region offers a wide range of activities for children. Crocodiles, snakes, parrots and monkeys are waiting at the ‘Parc Merveilleux’ of Bettembourg. Hauled by creaking locomotive wagons spitting fire, kids and parents alike discover the underground galleries of the old mines of Rumelange.

With the changes and modernization that has been evolving in the Land of Red of Rocks researches show that soon enough, Luxembourg will dominantly incorporate history and new age in its people and wonderful places. Balmoral International Group is proud to feature another special place in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

Who wouldn't love castles? I know a lot of us still have the Disney streaks within us and I am not talking to girls only. Well, to those who think that castles and princesses are only for sissies, then, let Balmoral International Group (with a lot of male macho within this group agreeing with me) introduce you to the great Bourscheid Castle.

Standing majestically some 150 meters above the River Sûre and enclosed by circular walls with 11 watchtowers, Bourscheid Castle is located near the village of Bourscheid in north-eastern Luxembourg. The medieval castle stands on a site with archeological evidence of structures dating back to Roman times.

Although first mentioned in records from 1095, the castle appears to have been built around the year 1000 on earlier foundations. It was extended on several occasions: the outer wall dates from 1350, the Stolzembourg house from 1384 and the courtyard from 1477. Behind the gateway from the end of the 15th century, a ditch protected by four towers barred access to the upper and lower castles. The southern and eastern towers are from 1498 and the artillery bastions were built in the 16th century.

The extension of the upper part of the castle took place in the 15th century while the great fireplace and tall chimney were completed about a hundred years later. Schenk von Schmidtburg, who acquired the castle at the end of the 18th century, undertook some repair work but was unable to prevent further degradation. In the 19th century, after the chapel collapsed, there was talk of demolishing the building. However, in 1936 it became a listed site and in 1972, with the encouragement of an association called the Friends of the Castle of Bourscheid, the State acquired the building and undertook extensive repairs. As a result of restoration work, the castle is now fully accessible to visitors, but remains a predominately open-air ruin.

At first the little square near the keep, the chapel and the palace with the great hall were surrounded by a circular wall with at least 4 towers.

Work on the outer circular wall with 8 towers started shortly after the year 1350. It was finished in 1384; the same year in which the Stolzemburger House, a residential building, was erected.

As the circular wall with its 8 towers now offered better protection to the core of the castle, the great hall was built to a height of at least 10 meters, which corresponds to 4 storeys. A bakery was added on the top of a 2-level dungeon hewn into the naked rock.

Behind the gateway, which was built only after 1477, a ditch protected by 4 towers barred the access to the upper and the lower castle. The square in front of the exterior gate was protected by palisades. In this area stood the linden tree under which justice was spoken.

After 1512 Bourscheid Castle began to dilapidate when the Lord of Bourscheid had died. His heirs made 3 separate homes for themselves on the castle grounds; the Metternich family in the old palace and keep, the Zant von Merl family in the lower part of the lower castle and the Ahr family in the Stolzemburger House. Although in 1650 the chapel was enlarged, only bailiffs lived in the castle from then on. The Stolzemburger House was completely rebuilt in 1785 but then the old palace and the chapel had already partially collapsed.

The castle was abandoned in the beginning of the 19th century and fell to ruin. In 1972 the ruins of Bourscheid Castle, which had been declared a national monument in 1936, were bought by the Luxembourg State and opened to the public. Since then parts of the castle were restored.

At present the Stolzemburger House seems to be used for cultural activities and the gatekeeper’s house houses a small museum which traces the history of Bourscheid Castle and the Lords of Bourscheid.

This is a nice and well known castle in Luxembourg. Although there are a lot of reviews stating that the castle is over-restored, Bourscheid Castle had also been a mute witness to history and events in the Great Duchy, a well-worth featuring in Balmoral International Group all the same.

Is the present too bothersome for you? Are you the type who keeps wondering what the past is like? Then, Balmoral International Group has some place to recommend for you to visit.

The Bock is a promontory in the north-eastern corner of Luxembourg City’s old historical district. The great river of Alzette surrounds its three sides offering a natural fortification. It was here that Count Siegfried built his Castle of Lucilinburhuc in 963, providing a basis for the development of the town which became Luxembourg. Over the centuries, the Bock and the surrounding defences were reinforced, attacked and rebuilt time and time again as the armies of the Burgundians, Habsburgs, Spaniards, Prussians and French vied for victory over one of Europe’s most strategic strongholds, the Fortress of Luxembourg. Warring did not stop until the Treaty of London was signed in 1867, calling for the demolition of the fortifications. Ruins of the old castle and the vast underground system of passages and galleries known as the casemates continue to be a major tourist attraction.

Pont du château

Pont du château is a two-storey bridge connecting the Bock to the old town. It was an important component for fortifications during the great wars. It was built in 1735 by the Austrians and provides no less than four ways of crossing between the cliffs: the road over the top, a passage by way of the four upper arches, a spiral staircase up through the main arch and a tunnel under the road at the bottom.

Casemates

There are a lot of casemates in the Bock. In 1933, the Bock casemates were opened to the public. During the Second World War, they were used as a bomb shelter able to accommodate up to 35,000 people. Renovation work and repairs were undertaken in 2008–2009 including the opening up of the mine galleries which contained explosives able to blow up part of the Bock in case of need.

Today the Bock casemates can be visited from March to October from the Rue Sigefroid. The stairs down from the entrance lead to the huge archaeological crypt where wall plates give an overview of the history of the fortifications. More stairs lead down through the dungeons of Siegfried’s old castle to the casemates themselves, a series of long tunnels down into the rock parallel to the road above. There are a number of lateral passages as well as chambers and balconies with openings to the north and south. Once emplacements for cannons, today they offer views of the Alzette valley below. Balmoral International Group Luxembourg knows a lot of tourist guides include a visit to the living quarters of Marshal von Bender, the Habsburg officer who, at the age of 82, coordinated resistance to the French siege in 1794–95 which lasted almost eight months. The exit is via the Pont du château onto Rue Sosthène Weiss, once the castle moat.